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Upon graduating from Macalester I headed to New York to study at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University. The next summer I began a gift store in downtown St. Paul with my mentor, Dr. Armajani, and his older brother. That fall I was in Japan studying Japanese at International Christian University and two years later theology, ethics and Japanese religions at Tokyo Union Theological Seminary.

When I ran out of money, I began working at a small packaging machinery firm located in Tokyo’s old industrial area. In addition, I taught English at public and private high schools and wrote articles on a regular basis covering popular, political and intellectual subjects for Japanese weekly and monthly magazines. 1964 found me in Virginia where I received a Ph.D. in history, produced an educational TV series and taught at several universities.  I returned to Japan in 1966 on a Fulbright Dissertation Fellowship and continued my writing for Japanese publications. In 1968 I returned to the U.S. and began teaching Japanese and Chinese History at Macalester. I continued to teach at Macalester and occasionally at colleges and universities in Japan until I retired in 2006.

Another dimension to my life developed in the 1980’s as my part-time work representing Hubbard Broadcasting in Asia rapidly expanded. For over 20 years I worked with broadcasters and electronic firms in Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines as they launched the satellite broadcast industries in their region. During that time I also supervised a small news bureau in Tokyo -- often headed by one of my former students.

About 15 years ago my various interests though the years coalesced in two ways. For one, I began teaching media studies as well as Asian history at Macalester.  Secondly, I became involved with a local Japanese television station in a three-year project to produce a documentary film. The topic was the educational philosophy and methods of a young American who introduced modern science and math in Japan 150 years ago. I was involved in researching, writing, filming and on camera commentary for this production that won the 1992 “Emmy” in Japan for TV documentaries.